Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to machine learning and more specifically to training deep learning algorithms as text classifiers and using them to identify risks while they are still internal to the enterprise, including the risks of potential litigation.
Description of the Related Art
Law professor Louis M. Brown (1909-1996) advocated “preventive law.” Indeed, he pioneered this concept. His philosophy was this: “The time to see an attorney is when you're legally healthy—certainly before the advent of litigation, and prior to the time legal trouble occurs.” He likened his approach to preventive medicine. However, Prof. Brown passed away before computer hardware and software had reached the point where his concept could be implemented. There are no conferences or journals today that focus on preventive law.
In modern society, entities such as commercial businesses, not-for-profit organizations, governmental agencies, and other ongoing concerns (all hereinafter referred to collectively as “enterprises”) are exposed to potential liabilities if they breach contractual, criminal, governmental, or tort obligations.
In Preventing Litigation: An Early Warning System, Etc. (Business Expert Press 2015) (“Preventing Litigation”), I presented the data showing that the average annual cost of commercial tort litigation in terms of payouts, defense attorneys' fees, and administrative expenses (collectively, “cost”), during the 10-year period from 2001 through 2010, was $160 billion. The total cost for that 10-year timeframe was $1.6 trillion. That pain is enormous.
In Preventing Litigation, I compiled the federal and state caseload for that same 10-year period, and computed the cost per case. The result was $408,000, but I concluded that the cost per case was better set at $350,000, as a minimum.
Since litigation is neither a cost of goods sold nor a cost of services provided, this result indicates a loss to the enterprise of net gains of over $1 million for only three average commercial tort litigation matters, but it was not surprising. It is common knowledge that the cost of litigation is high. On occasion, employee misbehavior, at every level, has violated the rights of another employee, severely impaired an enterprise, harmed an entire marketplace, or physically harmed enterprise employees, members of the public, or violated their rights. However, I assert that my data compilation and calculation was the first “per case” derivation of the average cost per case. I showed how much of a losing proposition it is for an enterprise to have to defend a commercial tort litigation matter, even if the client's attorneys are successful in the defense they mount.
Worse, severe misconduct causing massive financial and/or physical harm may escalate to the level where criminal charges are filed. Such charges may be filed against the enterprise and the individuals responsible for the harm. In the early 1990s, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines provided benchmarks for misconduct. The Sentencing Guidelines make room for mitigating conduct and actions that speak against the heaviest penalties. In this context, a system enabling the prevention of harm may function to avoid criminal prosecution altogether. Such a system is evidence of a specific intent to avoid harm, which is the opposite of an element any prosecutor would be forced by law to meet: a specific intent to do harm.
However, litigation can cost an enterprise in still other ways. For example, the enterprise's reputation may suffer, productivity may be reduced, as when an executive or technology employee receives a litigation hold notice and must divert his or her attention from the matters at hand; meets with in-house or outside counsel; or prepares for and then sits for a deposition or testifies in court.
These high costs and risks are sufficient motivation to find a way to identify the risks of litigation before the damage is done. If a risk can be identified and eliminated before causing damage, the risk cannot give rise to a lawsuit. No civil lawsuit is viable without a good faith allegation of the necessary element of damages.
The attorneys who are closest to the data internal to an enterprise are the attorneys employed by the enterprise. However, these in-house attorneys are blind to the data which contain indications of litigation risks.
There is no software technology or product extant today which permits enterprise employees to identify and surface examples of the risks of being sued while they are still only potential legal liabilities.
Thus, there is a need for a system capable of identifying an enterprise's own internal risks, including but not limited to the risk of litigation, and providing early warning to appropriate personnel.